


Down to the Filter

by ConspiracyOfCrows



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-04
Updated: 2018-12-04
Packaged: 2019-09-06 18:45:08
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 459
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16838284
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ConspiracyOfCrows/pseuds/ConspiracyOfCrows
Summary: Things had gone to hell in a handbasket.  He didn’t have enough cigarettes to get him through this, but he’ll make it work in the end.(Content notice for mentions of tobacco/cigarettes, mentions of vomiting.)





	Down to the Filter

He always did wonder what had happened. The scent of clove and tobacco filtered in thin tendrils around his head, elbows aching dully where the railing was cutting into them, and even as the ash from his cigarette fell into the breeze down over the ugliest god damn eyesore he’s ever seen, Axel can’t seem to make himself care enough to stop chain-smoking.

It hadn’t been that long ago since Roxas had left, at least not by his reckoning. Time was hard to follow when the sun never set, he thought to himself, taking another long drag before dropping the filter down to mash under his heel, another one already between leather-gloved fingertips. The change, at least, had come rapidly. One minute, they’re eating ice cream, trying to work up the nerve to go turn in one of the “Winner!” sticks, and the next, there’s mutiny in those eyes, sharp and hard as ice, and full of a malice that hadn’t been there when he’d picked up the habit.

He took another drag. The taste of spices was calming, at least, even though it did nothing to scratch the itch of addiction. Being dead fucking sucked, he decided, watching the paper burn down, leaving the same ashy grey in its wake that seemed to follow him whenever Roxas wasn’t around to chase him out of his own annoying bouts of self-pity. He really should get down from the tower, or at least go to the ledge up above the observation deck. Tourists still came in, on occasion, loud and annoying, with cameras that clicked, and clicked, until he heard the snap of shutters in his otherwise-dim dreams. _Makes a guy wanna puke,_ he thought acidly, flicking this cigarette butt off the edge and down toward the pavement.

A third cigarette lit itself without match or lighter. It was, perhaps, one of the only cool perks of being dead, or a Nobody, or whatever the hell they were, he thought, around the knowledge that Roxas would have kicked his ass for smoking like this. The rest of it, though, he could definitely do without. He let out another soft sigh, fragrant smoke following it onto the wind that never really stopped blowing this high up, and before he knew it, his third cigarette was gone. Axel frowned.

“Must’ve been the last one,” he muttered, searching his pockets for something he knew he wouldn’t find. “Guess it’s time to go. That kid had better appreciate me a whole hell of a lot after this.” The path of darkness opened easily for him, as it always had, the clove-smoke pulled through in front of him. He had enough left in him for one last fight. He figured he’d better make it count.


End file.
